Mon, Jun 21, 2010 page3

• Taipei mayor opens campaign office

  TAKING AIM The KMT mayor blasted his DPP opponent in the year-end elections, Su Tseng-chang, saying his campaign was like an old man ‘trying to cheer himself up’

  • By Ko Shu-ling / STAFF REPORTER
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  Seeking re-election in the year-end vote, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) opened a campaign office yesterday with “Taipei, fly high” as his campaign slogan.

  Hau said that when he first ran for Taipei mayor four years ago, he proposed to improve transportation in the nation’s capital and connect it with the world, including China. The launch of direct flights between Taipei Songshan Airport and Shanghai Hongqiao Airport last week was the realization of his campaign promise, he said.

  “Taipei City is like a little bird getting out of the cage and flying high into the sky,” he said.

  

  Former Taipei deputy mayor Samuel Wu, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-­General King Pu-tsung, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin and author Tsai Shih-pin, from left to right, make a gesture to represent planes taking off to promote Hau’s slogan “Taipei, fly high” at the opening of his campaign office yesterday.

  PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES

  Hau then criticized the campaign slogan of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) opponent Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) —“Taipei will surpass Taipei” — saying this was not a vision, but a “natural fact.”

  Hau, of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), said that when the DPP was in power, it adopted a “locked-up country” policy with regard to Beijing, neglecting Taiwan’s long-term development.

  “The result is we lost our capital and manpower, our economy backtracked and our national competitiveness dropped off,” he said. “Look at Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and Shanghai. Which is not welcoming with open arms people from other countries to come and visit, do business and study?”

  Opening up was not a slogan, Hau said, and internationalization was not an article posted on somebody’s blog. It required action, he said. Citing the city’s participation in the Shanghai World Expo, Hau said Taipei took advantage of the opportunity to raise its international profile and it was the materialization of his campaign slogan.

  Hau said as the KMT government is set to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with Beijing, opposing the trade pact would only “plunge the capital city further into the center of Taiwan’s political storm and push it out of the heart of Asia.”

  “The November election is the choice between opening up a city or closing it up, between empty talk or concrete action, between pursuing a personal political agenda or making the city a better place,” he said.

  Noting that Su has said he would participate in a march organized by the DPP on Saturday appealing for a referendum on an ECFA, Hau yesterday urged Su to propose an alternative plan if he was against the trade pact.

  KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), who also attended the event, said Su’s campaign slogan was too conservative and constrained, emphasizing that Taipei needed someone like Hau, who he described as “ambitious, energetic, active, courageous” and an “adventurist.”

  “When you [Su] say you want to surpass yourself, it sounds to me like a 50-year-old man trying to cheer himself up when he is exercising,” he said.

  Despite the criticism he lodged against his opponent, Hau failed to present new proposals on how to run the city.

  When asked by the Taipei Times about when he planned to release his manifesto, Hau looked confused and said: “I thought I already did that,” referring to the policy proposals he made four years ago when he was ­campaigning for Taipei mayor.

  He then turned to his deputy office manager, Chuang Wen-ssu (莊文思), for confirmation. Chuang said the office would either unveil the manifesto in September after launching its campaign ­headquarters, or when Hau officially registers as a candidate.

  Chuang said the manifesto would include the mid and long-term plans that Hau had already made public. They would also add Hau’s “campaign promises,” he said.

  Also See: EDITORIAL: Where are the real local politicians?
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